The present invention relates to a single use hygienic item, in particular a disposable diaper or an incontinence product, having a front part, a back part, a step area located between the front part and the back part, and fastening tongues arranged on lateral edges of the rear part for connecting the rear part with the front part for fastening the item placed on a wearer. The fastening tongues have first mechanical fastening elements which work together with second mechanical fastening elements arranged on the front part, and each have at least one adhesively designed area in order to be able to fasten the fastening tongues also to another portion of the item.
Known absorbent disposable items, such as diapers, incontinence products or the like, have an absorption body and a front and back part. When placing the item on a wearer, the front and back parts are connected with each by fastening means. The fastening means, which as a rule consist of adhesive strips arranged along the sides, can be released again from the front part for removing the soiled item. For disposal, the used disposable item can then be folded or rolled up into a small package. If the adhesive strips are then applied from the outside on the rolled-up item, there is no danger that the body secretions taken up by the absorbing item are released in the course of throwing the item away.
If the fastening means are designed as adhesive strips, they can be fastened on any arbitrary part of the diaper, i.e. in particular on the item rolled up into a small package. However, adhesive strips have the great disadvantage that they become soiled by oil, lotion, powder or the like and therefore no longer stick together, so that the diaper can no longer be fastened. For this reason, changes are made in that the adhesive strips are being replaced by mechanical fastening means, for example hook- and-eye closures. The adhesive strips are replaced by fastening tongues having first mechanical fastening elements, for example small hooks, which are connected with second mechanical fastening elements, for example eyes arranged on the front part, for fastening the item applied to a wearer. However, in this case the mentioned possibility of keeping the disposable item in the rolled-up state no longer exists, because the fastening tongues having the one elements of the hook-and-eye closure can no longer be fixed on the rolled-up diaper, since the corresponding complementary fastening elements have been rolled up.
To solve this problem, an absorbent disposable item with fastening means is proposed in accordance with European Patent EP 0 321 232, wherein the fastening means have mechanical fastening elements and next to them areas provided with an adhesive, so that the fastening means can also be fixed on the rolled-up item in spite of the mechanical fastening means. In connection with these known fastening means it is disadvantageous that they must be designed correspondingly large, in particular long, so that the mechanical fastening elements as well as the areas covered with adhesive are accommodated. Therefore the corresponding disposable item is not cost-effective.
A fastening system, in particular for hygienic items, having mechanically as well as adhesively cooperating surface structures, which can interact complementarily, is known from European Patent EP 0 418 954 A2.
In connection with a hook-and-eye closure system, Published International Application WO 96/25905 a teaches to provide the hook-forming component as well as the eye-forming component additionally with a cohesion adhesive in order to be able to set the desired adhesive properties (shear forces and stripping forces) between the components of the hook- and-eye closure.
An adhesive coating is known from European Patent EP 0 393 953 a for affixing a sanitary napkin to a piece of clothing, for example. So that the napkin better adheres to the textile material, protrusions are provided on the side of the napkin having the adhesive coating, which are pressed into the textile material and in this way fix the napkin in place secure against sliding. An adhesive layer with protrusions is not suitable for a disposable diaper, which as a rule has plastic foils, but no textile materials, since the protrusions cannot penetrate the foil, so that an adhesive coating of this type cannot be fixed in place on,a disposable diaper.
Based on this prior art, it is an object of the present invention to make available an improved single use hygienic item, which has improved, simply constructed and dependably fastening tongues with mechanical fastening elements and at least one adhesively embodied area. The item should be dependably disposable, and unintentional opening of the rolled-up or folded-up item should be preventable.
This object is attained by a hygienic item characterized in that at least a portion of the mechanical fastening elements of the first type have a respective adhesive application at their end facing away from the fastening tongue, and these fastening elements simultaneously constitute the adhesively designed area. They therefore have both a mechanical function when fastening the item as well as a simultaneous adhesive function when fastening the fastening tongues on another part of a folded or rolled-up item for disposing of the item.
If at least a part of the fastening elements of the first type have a respective adhesive coating on their end facing away from the fastening tongue, and these fastening elements constitute the adhesively embodied part, these fastening elements have a mechanical function when fastening the item, as well as a simultaneous adhesive function when fixing the fastening tongues on the diaper, which has been rolled up or folded for disposal, at another part outside of the second mechanically acting fastening elements. This results in the further advantage that when placed on the wearer, the diaper can always be securely fastened since, if a fastening tongue is not exactly positioned on the diaper during fastening, for example, so that only a portion of the mechanical fastening elements of the first type can come into engagement with the fastening elements of the second type, the fastening elements of the first type are nevertheless fastened in place on the diaper because of the adhesive coating in accordance with the invention. This advantage cannot be achieved by means of the known areas provided with an adhesive and arranged separately from the mechanical fastening elements of the first type.
Because of the dual function of the first fastening elements, the fastening tongues of the item in accordance with the invention can be made shorter, which results in a savings in material. The adhesively embodied areas will become soiled less rapidly than the known areas provided with adhesive and arranged separately from the mechanical fastening elements, since the soiling by oil, for example, can xe2x80x9crun offxe2x80x9d from the individual adhesive coating of a fastening elements into the spaces between the fastening elements. But soiling in the spaces does not constitute an interference, so that the item in accordance with the invention is less sensitive to soiling in contrast to soiling of the fastening tongues. Essentially, all fastening elements of the first type have an adhesive coating in order to obtain maximum adhesive force. In a simple embodiment of the invention, the fastening elements of the first type are designed as small hooks. However, preferably the fastening elements of the first type have a mushroom-like shape with a stem and a cap, because in this case it is possible to apply a greater amount of adhesive to the individual fastening elements.
In order to be able to further increase the amount of adhesive applied to the fastening section, the caps of the fastening elements of the first type are flattened, and the fastening section preferably has a T-shape in cross section.
In an embodiment of the invention in accordance with claim 7, a further application of adhesive is provided at least in areas between the fastening elements of the first type, because of which the adhesive force is further increased when the fastening tongue is firmly pressed on the material on which it is to be fastened, so that the fastening elements of the first type are either bent, or penetrate into the material.
The thickness of the further adhesive coating preferably changes in the longitudinal direction of the fastening tongue in order to create areas of different adhesive force.
The thickness of the further adhesive coating preferably decreases in the direction toward the free fastening tongue, so that when the item which has been placed on a wearer is unfastened, the ends of the fastening having less strong adhesive force can be easier undone.
The invention will be explained in detail in what follows by means of exemplary embodiments making reference to the drawings.